If there’s one Meta Ads placement that marketers avoid more than a dark alley at night… it’s Audience Network Placement. And there’s a good reason for that.
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What is it?
The idea is, this placement can help developers monetize their free apps by placing ads within them, outside of Meta’s regular products.
Sounds cool, right?
Only on paper, according to Jon Loomer. He explains that there are instances where it’s good to use it, but more often than not, you have to be careful.
Let’s unpack this a bit more…
The big problem with this placement
You run into issues when you’re optimizing for link clicks. Why? Because the Audience Network drains your budget.
Although it’s designed to drive clicks, the links are usually low quality. Most users click and bounce, leaving you with vanity metrics.
It’s the same with Audience Network rewarded video placements.
Users may watch at least 15 seconds of your video, but they never stick around.
When to turn it off
Jon recommends you always turn off the campaign in these two cases:
- Whenever you optimize for link clicks or landing page views. If you care about link quality, you’ll want to filter out any potential bounces.
- When you optimize for ThruPlay. Due to the way this placement rewards users, it’s prone to manipulation, so users rarely stay on your website.
… And when to use it
Most advertisers take the “better safe than sorry” route and always disable this placement.
But you don’t have to do this every time. Just make sure you pick the right optimization goal.
For example, if you’re optimizing for conversions or custom events for quality traffic, then you have nothing to worry about.
In that case, go with Advantage+ placements and keep the Audience Network on.
Have you optimized it yet?
If not, and need more clarification, head over to Jon Loomer’s article. It’s always worth learning new things so you get more out of your precious ad cash.